The Official Fuel Prices Thread

This is a discussion on The Official Fuel Prices Thread within The Indian Car Scene, part of the BHP India category; We aam aadmi should be grateful for the small crumbs. Our situation reminds one of the cartoon strip Crock....

I am intrigued by your post. It would be interesting to find out as to how & when did the environment lobby become stronger than the petroleum lobby. When did Canada acquire Alaskan oil fields deep or otherwise and when did farmlands take root in Texas.

that's one of the stories I had read online, there is another one in the newyorker but I can't find the link :-) of course when I use farmlands I mean to cover ranches too since that is also farmland yes?

Petrol prices cut by 80 paise a litre, diesel by Rs. 1.30 per litre with effect from midnight tonight
I dont understand if both Petrol and Diesel were deregularised how come petrol price cut has been lower than Diesel for two consecutive price cuts

Petrol prices cut by 80 paise a litre, diesel by Rs. 1.30 per litre with effect from midnight tonight
I dont understand if both Petrol and Diesel were deregularised how come petrol price cut has been lower than Diesel for two consecutive price cuts

Very valid point.. I was having this question for quite a while but forgot to ask. Normally, would expect petrol price cuts to be higher because of more taxes on petrol

That's because they are 'adjusting' their margins to be higher on petrol. Actually the price drop should have been higher on petrol than diesel. The difference between the two should have been less than Rs 10. Now, thanks to the artificial 'adjustments', this margin has started increasing again.

That's because they are 'adjusting' their margins to be higher on petrol. Actually the price drop should have been higher on petrol than diesel. The difference between the two should have been less than Rs 10. Now, thanks to the artificial 'adjustments', this margin has started increasing again.

Yes, I have been noticing that..Few months back, the difference (in Hyderabad) was around 11/- now it has slowly climbed back to 13/-.

I don't understand how that's possible when both are 'deregulated'.
There is some sort of a manipulation going on in the petroleum ministry and the OMCs but I don't understand the motivation.

Unless we have more private players selling fuel, this will continue to happen. Any news about Reliance/Essar starting their operations? I mean there might be a few outlets already but they are too few and far to make any impact.The surprising thing is that Shell pricing is in line with the OMCs. As if someone has told them to toe the line if they want to do business in India.

I hope some media channel/newspaper exposes the manipulation going on with fuel prices.

I have long been a supporter of the Govt's decision to raise duty on P/D to get money into their coffers. But this move is puzzling. Petrol gets its price increased more and decreased less than Diesel.

Not sure what is the logic behind it. If some Bhpian is able to explain it better, please do.

Also like others have said, maybe the media should do some analyzing on these topics rather than the brand of PM's shawl

Well some good news considering I am going for a diesel car. But media calling this price cut as "Petrol, diesel prices slashed" and oil companies claiming "benefits passed on to consumers" is unjustified.

Yes, indeed! This practice of deliberately punishing petrol users unfairly is sickening to the core! The government looks like it is hand-in-glove with the PSU oil cabal, or may even be asking the oil cabal to follow this disgustingly discriminatory practice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by adimicra

The surprising thing is that Shell pricing is in line with the OMCs.

Unfortunately, they don't have much choice. Shell (in India) are purely a marketing company (somewhat akin to a mobile virtual network operator like Virgin) as far as fuels are concerned, having to source all their fuel requirements from the PSU refineries. So the PSU cabal may have indirectly forced Shell to follow their sick pricing strategy.

I seriously hope Shell ditches the PSU cabal and ties up with private refineries in the future, or better still, invests in a couple of refineries of its own!

Quote:

Unless we have more private players selling fuel, this will continue to happen

True! The PSU cartel has gone back to its vile ways. Unless we have more private competition in fuel retailing, this cabal will continue to wallow in its sick license-raj mentality and take the country backwards.

Yes, indeed! This practice of deliberately punishing petrol users unfairly is sickening to the core! The government looks like it is hand-in-glove with the PSU oil cabal, or may even be asking the oil cabal to follow this disgustingly discriminatory practice.

Unfortunately, they don't have much choice. Shell (in India) are purely a marketing company (somewhat akin to a mobile virtual network operator like Virgin) as far as fuels are concerned, having to source all their fuel requirements from the PSU refineries. So the PSU cabal may have indirectly forced Shell to follow their sick pricing strategy.

I seriously hope Shell ditches the PSU cabal and ties up with private refineries in the future, or better still, invests in a couple of refineries of its own!

True! The PSU cartel has gone back to its vile ways. Unless we have more private competition in fuel retailing, this cabal will continue to wallow in its sick license-raj mentality and take the country backwards.

Yes, so far there is no sign of Reliance pumps being restarted. Essar are too small and hardly there. Until we get a decent number of private vendors active, there is no hope. I do not see Reliance / Essar charging differently from the PSU racketeers.

Petrol prices cut by 80 paise a litre, diesel by Rs. 1.30 per litre with effect from midnight tonight
I dont understand if both Petrol and Diesel were deregularised how come petrol price cut has been lower than Diesel for two consecutive price cuts

Quote:

Originally Posted by SchumiFan

Not sure what is the logic behind it. If some Bhpian is able to explain it better, please do.

Taxes is the answer. Petrol is taxed more than diesel, hence the lesser cut and the higher increase when compared with diesel. If the govt and NGT are coming around to the view that diesel is a problem for air pollution then the first thing they need to do is end this differential pricing structure, which leads to the distortion that they then try to correct by draconian methods.

I have long been a supporter of the Govt's decision to raise duty on P/D to get money into their coffers. But this move is puzzling. Petrol gets its price increased more and decreased less than Diesel.

Not sure what is the logic behind it. If some Bhpian is able to explain it better, please do.

Also like others have said, maybe the media should do some analyzing on these topics rather than the brand of PM's shawl

Its actually an interesting phenomenon.

We expect the fall in crude to be reflected in direction and magnitude in both diesel and petrol.

However the GRM's (gross refining margins) have remained similar even when crude prices have fallen. You can look up the crack spreads. When crude was at 110 USD a barrel, crack spreads were 8-10 USD a barrel and now at 55 USD they are at around 7-8 USD. Hence the magnitude of decline in diesel or petrol is not the same as crude oil as converters(refiners) keep their absolute margin per unit the same.

However in this last case wherein we saw petrol fall by .8 vs 1.3 for diesel the key reason was that the spreads between output products have moved.

When crude oil is refined (cracked) multiple products are produced such as naptha, diesel, petrol, FO etc. This ratio depends on both the type of crude(heavy, light) and the cracking ratio used.

There are a multitude of factors at play at any given time. Currently gasoline (petrol) is in higher demand and diesel not so. A possible reason is the slowdown in industrial activity. This demand anomaly between the two products have resulted in the said difference. However these get rectified by the market forces soon enough by moving the crack ratio towards petrol and increasing supply, maintaining overall crack spreads.

Everything else being constant petrol prices should increase more than diesel when crude prices go up (due to tax differential) or decrease more than diesel when crude prices go down(again due to tax differential) as taxes are higher on petrol than diesel.

Everything else being constant petrol prices should increase more than diesel when crude prices go up (due to tax differential) or decrease more than diesel when crude prices go down(again due to tax differential) as taxes are higher on petrol than diesel.

Hope this helps.

This is what we were expecting but is not happening. The last time fuel prices were hiked, petrol went up by 3.50 Rs and diesel by a much lesser amount (don't remember the exact amount). Now when prices fall, we expect the drop to be higher for petrol than diesel. But since the last two revisions, diesel prices are reducing at a faster rate than petrol.

One thing is for sure, the deregulation of fuel prices is the biggest scam today, running into hundreds of thousands of crores being pocketed by the govt and oil refiners/marketers.